Maitland Pickers

The Maitland Pickers Rugby League Football Club is an Australian rugby league football club based in Maitland, New South Wales formed in 1955. They currently play in the Newcastle Rugby League competition. Their nickname was originally the Pumpkin Pickers but is now abbreviated to just the Pickers.

Maitland Pickers
Club information
Full nameMaitland Pickers
Rugby League
Football Club
Colours     Black
     Green
     White
Founded1955
Current details
Ground(s)
  • Maitland Sportsground
CompetitionNewcastle Rugby League

History

The Maitland Pumpkin Pickers were formed from a merger of Maitland United and Morpeth-East Maitland in the 1942 season after Maitland City struggled to field teams. During the 1940s, Newcastle Rugby League experienced a drastic change when the league was reduced from 10 to 8 teams after Morpeth-East Maitland made a departure at the start of the 1942 season and Eastern Suburbs folding before the semi-finals. It was decided the defunct Morpeth-East Maitland, would merge to form the Maitland Pumpkin Pickers.[1] In 1933, Maitland won their maiden premiership.

The dominance began in the 1950s when Australian Representative, Don Adams led Maitland played in seven consecutive grand finals, winning three premierships in a row from 1956-1958. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Pickers continued to dominate, having made it to the grand final five consecutive years (three titles and two runners-ups).[2][3]

In the early 2010s, Maitland found another period of success winning back-to-back premierships beating Cessnock 24-8 in 2010 and beating Western Suburbs 19-18. The Pickers were also minor premiers in two consecutive seasons between 2010-2011.[4]

2015 and 2016 were difficult years for the club finishing with the wooden spoon in consecutive years, winning 3 out of 14 games in 2015 whilst concluding the 2016 season picking up only 1 win.[5]

Name Origin

The term "Pumpkin Pickers" was a sarcastic reference to the players bringing goods to the markets to sell when they went to games by train.[6]

Notable Juniors

Sponsors
  • Club Maitland City
  • Barbeques Galore Maitland
  • Reid's Telarah Butchery
  • Mitchell Physiotherapy
  • Hyflow Plumbing
  • Tassell Financial Planning
  • Queens Arms Hotel
  • Rotating Machine Solutions Pty Limited
  • Ausure Insurance
  • Windsor Castle Hotel
  • Hunt Plant Hire
  • Maitland Toyota
  • Maitland Carpet Court
  • Teasdale Tyres
  • Cants Building & Construction
  • Steggles
  • Hunter Petroleum
  • Maitland Mutual
  • Maitland Mecury
  • Good Sports Program
  • Nepean Power
  • One Stop Pine
  • Australian Drug Foundation
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See also

References
  1. GOFFET, NEIL (5 February 2008). "Stars shine bright as local league grows". Newcastle Herald. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
  2. "History - Maitland Pickers Rugby League (CRL) - SportsTG". SportsTG. Retrieved 5 August 2018.
  3. Callinan, Josh (16 August 2015). "Maitland Pickers top 20 players". The Maitland Mercury. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
  4. "Newcastle Rugby League", Wikipedia, 21 February 2019, retrieved 21 April 2019
  5. Callinan, Josh (10 April 2019). "Newcastle Rugby League team-by-team season previews - Maitland". Newcastle Herald. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
  6. "History - Maitland Pickers Rugby League (CRL) - SportsTG". SportsTG. Retrieved 5 August 2018.
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